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Defendant takes stand in Fitchburg double murder trial

By Alana Melanson, amelanson@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
06/30/2014 05:18:05 PM EDT

WORCESTER -- Orville Carrion took the stand Monday, claiming that he was struck with a machete before drawing and firing his gun in a 2009 Labor Day weekend melee that claimed the lives of two Fitchburg teens.

Orville Carrion, 27, and his brother, Jose Carrion, 32, are each charged with two counts of murder and one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the Sept. 6, 2009, deaths of Pedro Genao, 17, and Nelson Geraldino, 18, outside of the Carrions' 96 Mechanic St. apartment in Fitchburg following an after-hours party.

"At that point, I thought somebody was trying to kill me or something," he answered.

Orville Carrion said he drew his gun because he felt his and his brother's lives were in danger.

He testified that the night of the incident, he had gone to a bar in Fitchburg that would not let him in because he was wearing sneakers. Orville Carrion said he then went to bar in Leominster where he met up with some family and friends before meeting up with other friends at a Leominster apartment complex.

When he was leaving that party, he said he called his brother to have him follow him home, because Orville Carrion had been having radiator issues and was worried he wouldn't make it there.

When they arrived at 96 Mechanic St.

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, Orville Carrion said his brother was able to park by the bushes in front, but there was no space available for him until a car at the end of the driveway pulled out a few moments later. He said he took the spot and got out of his car, but one of about six people in the driveway asked him to move so another vehicle could leave.

Orville Carrion said he walked back to move his car, but as he was getting into the vehicle, he heard his brother arguing with two men in the driveway. He said he left his vehicle and began to walk toward the argument. On his way, he said another man called out to him, and his brother and the other two men became involved in a physical struggle.

It was then, Orville Carrion said, that he was attacked from behind.

"I got struck on my head real hard," he said, noting that the blow did not knock him down, but "it rung my bell pretty hard."

Orville Carrion said he ducked down and held his head, realizing he was bleeding profusely. He said he turned around and tried to reach for his gun, but realized the same man was about to attack him again. He said he put up his left arm defensively and the blow from the machete landed there.

Orville Carrion then grabbed his gun from his waist, he said, racked the slide, and the magazine fell out. Before he realized he had another magazine in his pocket, he said he saw his brother being threatened by two men with weapons, one of them "a long-sized knife."

"It appeared to me like it was an attack," Orville Carrion said.

He said he fired his gun low at both of the armed men, hitting them both in the leg. One fell down in the driveway, he said, while the other ran to the right.

Orville Carrion said a third man then came at him, so he shot him in the leg area, as well.

He said he and his brother then walked toward the front of the house, where they found a man injured on the ground and attempted to talk to him. At that point, he said, another man came up behind his brother, so Orville Carrion jumped on the man and they struggled and fell into the bushes. He said his gun went off during the struggle.

When police arrived, Orville Carrion said, he pulled an officer over and informed him he had a gun -- a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol he had only owned for a couple months at the time. He said he turned the gun over to the officer.

During cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney John Bradley asked Orville Carrion if he remembered telling police he learned how to use the gun by watching YouTube videos. A review of his statement to police refreshed his memory that he had, but he said he had also taken a training course.

Bradley pressed Orville Carrion for an answer as to why he had been carrying a loaded gun with an extra magazine when he went out drinking.

"Did you expect you would be firing more than nine rounds that night?" Bradley asked.

"Everybody should have a spare clip," Orville Carrion responded.

Bradley pressed on, asking, "Were you expecting trouble that night?"

"I don't get in trouble, no," he responded.

Bradley asked him if Jose Carrion had a knife that night, and Orville Carrion said not to his knowledge.

Orville Carrion's testimony was cut short due to the half-day schedule the trial is following, and will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Prior to Orville Carrion, the defense had called up four other witnesses, including two state police crime lab employees, Lynn Schneeweis and Laura Bryant, who testified they had not been asked to perform DNA analysis on any evidence collected in connection with the case, and Samantha Meuer, a 96 Mechanic St. resident at the time, who recalled hearing the screams during the incident and seeing "blood everywhere."

The first witness brought up by the defense was Katherine Irizarry, of Boston, who, at the time of the slayings, had been friends with Pedro Genao and others present that night.

Irizarry, who was 16 at the time, said she, like Sara Flynn, had lied to her grandparents about what she was doing that night and told them she was sleeping over Flynn's house. Instead, they went to two different parties, including the one at 96 Mechanic St., she said, and Flynn made plans to have Ronny Genao give them a ride home.

Whereas others had previously testified Pedro Genao had come out of the house after the melee had started, Irizarry, referencing a 2010 statement she had made to a grand jury, said he had exited the house with Flynn while Irizarry remained inside.

When Irizarry did go outside, she said, she saw Pedro Genao on the ground, hunched over and clutching his injured stomach, and Flynn bending down trying to help him. She said Flynn told her to go to the car, and she ran and hid in the back seat of the first vehicle she saw.

Geraldino's mother, Miriam Recio, of New York, also briefly took the stand as the prosecution's last witness to answer a few questions about her family with the assistance of a Spanish interpreter.

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